increases in many of these families as well. Adding to her
concern, she learned about documented changes in the brain
experienced by those who become addicted to the games.
Mom developed new resolve to look at what she had done to
her son by encouraging his infatuation with the screen and the
keyboard. She realized that family members had drifted apart
since she had allowed the computer to take over raising her
children.
Mom now knew she had to take action. She and Dad sought
out the services of an addiction specialist in an attempt to
understand the challenges they and their son were going to face.
The therapist helped them understand they would soon be
seeing typical behaviors of addicts.
“No,” said Mom. “Jared is a good kid who has never been
prone to being sneaky or defiant. He will understand that we are
trying to help him.” Months later, she told how wrong she was
about this. “When we took away his computer, he sneaked time
on his dad’s computer. When we put a password on Dad’s
computer, he found a way to break the password. He told us he
was going to his friend’s home to do homework, but instead he
used his friend’s machine to continue his gaming.”
Jared even found a way to buy a used computer, which he hid
in his room. Mom and Dad never discovered where he got the
money to buy it. They were equally surprised to learn he would
sneak away to the Cyber Café when he was supposed to be in
school. Truancy became a major problem.
Like all similar situations, this problem got worse before it
started to turn around. Fortunately, with the support of a
therapist and due to Jared’s determination to rejoin the real
world instead of the fantasy world of gaming, there was a happy
ending to this story.As this mom looked back on this problem and how it consumed her